352
by electricsymphony
Summary: Conspiracy. It's everywhere. It's runs in the pipes that circulate the Ministry of Magic daily. Some conspiracies are useless gossip-- insignificant. This one howewever, could change the premise of the entire Second War. DH Spoilers. Prologue is short.


**3-5-2**

**Prologue**

**October 27****th****, 2003**

**Arour Dept. of Deceased Records Office**

**Ministry of Magic**

* * *

"The readings aren't bad—they just, don't make sense."

"Well if they don't make sense Weasley, what's good about them?"

He inhaled, looking the other way. "Never said they were good, Malfoy."

"You said they weren't bad."

"Doesn't mean they're good."

Harry sighed and placed his coffee mug on the table with a definitive "crack". "Shut up, the pair of you." He closed the curtains on the window and turned to face them. "Let me see the readings one more time, Ron." He scanned the numbers again and placed his fingers between two points on the parchment. He beckoned the other two men closer to him as he pondered.

"See this?" He asked, as he placed his forefinger and thumb on opposite ends of the parchment. "My thumb indicates the number of deaths for this month. My forefinger represents the total number of deaths per month averaged since last October." Harry bit his lip and looked in the other direction. "Ron, read me the September readings again."

"Eh—for the district, U.K. or worldwide?"

"The district."

"21 women, 15 men killed in the London Attack three weeks ago, 4 Ministry Officials—most recent, James Frost, Dept. of Magical Transportation—and 12 personal civilian attacks."

"That's 52 people in the month of September. Quite a large number of people, especially for a district that's not officially in a state of war," Malfoy responded.

Before Ron could counter with a snarky remark, Harry answered, "He's right, Ron. The numbers are far too high for this too not be of concern. All of these attacks have been linked to magical Death Eater terrorists, we know that." Harry sighed, and inhaled a bit of fresh air. "If we knew that different groups were perpetrating it would be different. But 52 people in one district can't be killed by the same group."

"How the hell are they getting away with this? Half of the Death Eaters are locked in cells in Azkaban, and their leader is dead. They were shattered to pieces near the end of Second War. It doesn't make any sense," Ron commented.

"I know," Harry agreed. "Read the district readings for August, Ron."

"28 men and 19 women in the Dept. of Mysteries break-in, 3 personal civilian attacks and 2 Ministry Official deaths." Harry didn't notice as Ron bent down to examine the numbers on closer inspection.

"See now; notice how consistent that is with September--"

"Not just consistent, exact."

"Pardon?"

"Harry," Ron said, "52 people were killed in August."

He swallowed. He knew all three of them were sensing some kind of pattern. But… it couldn't possibly be that easy, could it? "Now read October so far."

"There's nothing much to read," Malfoy said, reading over Ron's shoulder, "No big attacks so far and no civilian deaths. Robert Carthardy was murdered last week but you already knew about that."

"Exactly! In 27 days, there was one death. But, think about it-- Exact duplicates in August and September, and now—nothing. Three days until the end of the month, and barely anything. It almost seems like--"

"Like they have a quota or something," Malfoy finished for him.

"A quota for how many killings they need to make? That's completely barbaric. Not to mention really improbable. Their system is incredibly chaotic right now. They have no leader whatsoever." Ron mused.

"Maybe they do," Harry said. He knew he had no basis, but he had a hunch. Most of the time, a hunch this strong rarely proved to be wrong.

"How?" Ron asked, "We have intelligence trailing their every move. If a new leader was proposed, we'd know about it."

"Maybe it wasn't a new leader," Malfoy suggested.

"But Voldemort's dead—he's been dead for four years. He was their leader—he was in charge of everything. If there really used to be a quota it would show in some of the older readings." Ron started to pick up some of his papers and stopped midway. "What if--"

"What if there really was a quota in the First War?" Harry asked, as if reading Ron's mind.

"Malfoy, do you have the older readings on hand?"

"For what year?"

"Eh—1979."

"Why '79?"

"Because '77 to '79 was his most active point in either the First or Second War."

Malfoy started to read as Harry began to write was dictated to him. "January—102 deaths for the London district—, February—93 deaths in the district—, March—24 deaths—, April—45 deaths—, May—36 deaths—, June—52 deaths—,"

"Wait, stop. That's 352. What's the total amount for the whole year?"

"Eh—704."

"What about the next year?"

"650."

"1981?"

"470."

"Even after Voldemort was destroyed?"

"Yeah," Malfoy answered with a bitter voice. "I remember Father commenting when I was young on their ability to rule no matter the circumstances."

"You never heard anything about the circumstances?" Harry asked.

Malfoy pondered—completely unhappy that he was stuck in a room with Potter and Weasley—while Ron punched in numbers on a muggle calculator.

"3-5-2," he said abruptly.

"Okay. What about it?"

"Every year since 1960 any attacks affiliated with Voldemort re-arranged the digits in 3-5-2 every six months. Take 1979 for example, the total was 704—352 twice—, 1980 was 650—325 twice—, and 1981 was 470—235 twice—. We were right—there is a quota."

"But Voldemort didn't create that quota." At both of their incredulous looks, he pressed forward. "I've been wondering this for years, but never brought it up. Tom Riddle is a half-blood, right? I imagine anyone willing to follow him would demand to know his background. Any person with an average IQ could've done enough research to determine he was Tom Riddle—a half blood. No one with that much bias against non pure-bloods would follow a half-blood. Perhaps--"

"Perhaps Voldemort was never the one running the show, you mean?" Draco asked.

"Exactly. All Voldemort wanted was power—I doubt he cared much about muggles at all. The real head of this operation offered Voldemort the glory and the fame of being the dictator on the posters. He knew he could never get a better gig than that with being a half blood so he took it. Think about it. Any power-hungry dictator isn't going to present himself to the public so he can be murdered like Voldemort was."

"So you're saying—someone else created that quota. Someone else was behind the entire pureblood mania platform the whole time."

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"I don't know," Harry responded, "but if we don't find out, we'll never stop these attacks."

"I guess this means the Second War isn't officially over."

Harry smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "I don't think it's even begun."

* * *

A/N: Made you think, huh? Sorry it was so short. It's the prologue. Deal.

If you saw any mistakes in the numbers, feel free to tell me. I changed the number a couple of times so there's a good chance I screwed up somewhere. Tell me if you like the idea. I came up with it in like 2 minutes.

S.S.M.


End file.
